This book uses money as a lens through which to analyze the social and economic impact of colonialism on African societies and institutions. It is the first book to address the monetary history of the colonial period in a comprehensive way, covering several areas of the continent and different...

Section 1: Early colonial transitions: commodity, international and colonial currencies -- 1. “Here there is no gold standard. Cows are the standard”. Currencies, wealth accumulation and the monetary transition in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast (1896-1936); Domenico Cristofaro --...

Covering the colonial Empire (including West Indies, India, Singapore, West Africa and East Africa), this book is a detailed revisionist history of the British imperial manipulations of colonial currency systems to facilitate the rise of sterling to world supremacy via the gold standard, and to...